A Nobody and His Fairytales
by inactiveGE
Summary: This is the stuff of Happy Endings, the sort that only a Nobody could find. AxelxRoxas and the use of Cinderella


Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts doesn't belong to me. This is a purely fanmade work, no profit is made.

Roxas wiped the mud slicking his sleeves as he grimly watched the horse-drawn carriage pass by into the sunset. A nice hard slap pitched him forward and he fought to regain balance while plotting his partner's demise.

"Come on, Roxas! I told you not to stand near these medieval roads." Smiling down at his companion, Axel bundled the papers of research they had collected from what he termed 'ballroom-land'.

Roxas glared up at his freakishly tall person whom he ambivalently called friend, and was seriously considering revoking the benefit of the doubt.

Axel all but threw him into the portal he conjured and they were back within the castle walls: safe.

At least, that's what Axel's perspective on the matter seemed to be.

"What's the matter buddy? Too many stuffy old people try to talk to you today?" Axel dropped the top-secret-Xemnas-intended letters into Xemnas's appointed mailbox, half opened, and followed Roxas who was stalking up the stairs. Up the stairs which no one used, because they all had the ability to teleport, and so thus stalking for the pure pleasure of stomping and tracking his muddy footprints for a very pissed off blue-haired nobody to wipe off later.

Roxas was, in fact, reminding him that he hadn't said a word since they left the damn staircase where the stupid glass slipper had been found. Yes, he was reminding him with his own silence.

"Isn't it great to be back here? That old barn was really cruel of Superior, you know?"

Yes, he did know, but like hell was he going to agree with such a pig-headed idiot.

They landed on the third floor, Axel seeming to be a little out of breath from the abnormal task, and Roxas not realizing the acceleration of blood flow while thinking angry thoughts at Axel.

He unwaveringly kept his gaze straight ahead, where his room would be, and mentally rolled his eyes at Axel's persistent footsteps.

He wasn't even speaking anymore,and this worried Roxas. But he wasn't going to look back; he would slam his door, activate the lock, and remove his dirty laundry. Roxas was one who usually lived in the moment, and for the moment, thus he didn't really plan anything past removing his sopping muddy apparel, but maybe he should have, because then he would have not stood in the middle of his room, debating over taking a bath to taking a nap, he wouldn't have stood stark naked in the middle of his room with the door locked for over a minute, he wouldn't have stood there with his back turned towards the door and his hands crossed in wonder. He wouldn't have been standing there when he remembered Axel's teleporting abilities, and he wouldn't have been standing there when Axel tacked him to the ground.

"Talk to me, Rox."

Roxas ignored the pressing heat of the close body and just glared.

"What was it? Was it the dancing I did with the princess?"

Roxas stilled his struggling and just stared at the redhead lying horizontally above him, trying to remember that certain scene which indeed had no relevance to his current predicament.

"What?"

Axel's eyes were animated and earnest. "Was it when I talked to the prince? Cuz honest, Rox, the guy's a total sap, and has no personality! I only did it to find out where the damn papers were stored!"

Roxas realized Axel actually had no clue what Roxas had been affronted by, and sighed. What a big, gangly, stupid dork of a best friend he had.

He refocused on Axel's face, so close above him, and gave a half-hearted smile at the worried look he had caused. "It was the stairs." He murmured.

Axel's grip on his arms slackened three seconds later and realization took place.

"You said… you said that their version of happiness didn't exist. You said there was no such thing as true love."

Axel leaned back, thoughtful. "Roxas, they don't have personalities, those people. Their existence is as valid as ours." This was to say, not at all.

"It's not our fault we can't understand how they feel, but just because we can't feel it doesn't mean it's not real." He insisted, leaning on his own elbows now.

"Oh." Axel sighed, his eyes averted. "Sorry. I should have realized that." He stood roughly from Roxas's lap and refused to look at the boy. "You're right, of course it's real for them; they get some sort of perfect, albeit demented happy ending. Your life must be absolute shit compared to theirs."

Roxas reached a hand out, to try and grasp a part of Axel's coat and keep him there; keep him from going too far. Axel stepped back; stepped towards the door.

"Obviously, you'd like to have your heart swept off its feet, maybe do a little dancing at a wedding. I'll see if I can get a robot to synthetically prance you around the ballroom like a fucking air headed twit. You can be the one everyone in the kingdom is jealous of I'm sure."

"Axel…"

"And you'll never have to wear black again. You won't even have to do missions or obey people. You can have multiple friends, they can all know about your hobbies, eat sea salt icecream together, play fucking games like they do in kingdom hearts!"

He shouted the last syllable, simply to counteract the rise of flames in his hand.

But then he looked at Roxas, and his anger immediately subsided. Roxas was sitting there, averted gaze, pale, cold, and naked.

"I want a heart just as much as you do." Roxas whispered softly.

"More than a happy ending?"

Roxas tore his gaze away from the white tiled floor and met those pensive eyes with steely resignation. "That is my happy ending."

Axel swallowed, and kept their eyes leveled with each other. He regarded the naked blonde, and recalled the occasion for why he had said the statement which had so offended Roxas up to now.

_Roxas was staring at the princess as she escaped from the palace, her midnight tolls almost at an end. This would have been acceptable, because Axel was watching too, but the way Roxas was watching contrasted very differently to how Axel watched him. Lately, Axel had been noting Roxas periodically staring at nothing, unfocused gaze signifying a lost thought. It had happened twelve times already, from what Axel had observed, and since the second time he noticed he had made sure to keep a much closer eye on the blonde._

"_And they lived happily ever after." Roxas narrated quietly as he saw the prince descend the steps further with a glass slipper in hand._

"_Pft, yeah right. What a happy ending that will be."_

_He wasn't really listening to himself speak, but Axel was certain whatever he was saying was in reaction to making Roxas not want to be anywhere else except the Organization. Usually, when Roxas got these looks, Axel would relate them to his thinking about his 'Other', and the desire to meet them, or the curiosity brought by his other life which he couldn't remember, and he would then desperately attempt to bring him back into the moment. _

_But with the mention of the same "Sora" are more than one sleepless night occasions, Axel had become increasingly on alert._

"_Whatever." Roxas said coolly to whatever Axel had just finished saying. Axel didn't pay attention to the response, just noted that Roxas was certainly not thinking about others anymore, and once again safe._

"Whatever." Axel relented, offering a hand to help Roxas up. Roxas wordlessly accepted and sat on the bed right next to him. Axel followed suit.

"Sorry for getting mad."

"Yeah. Me too."

"I'm just really tired."

"Hn."

"I'm…going to take a nap now." He decided, and looked at the pillow beside his leg.

Axel made movements to get up, but Roxas grabbed his wrist through his coat, and tugged.

They made eye contact, and it was like breathing again. Axel bent down and enveloped Roxas in his long arms. He settled with his back against the wall as Roxas positioned himself horizontally once more.

"You'll stay?" Roxas was uncertain, and his question was barely audible.

"I won't leave you."

Roxas was content with this answer, buried his head into Axel's surprisingly clean coat and slept.

"And that's my happy ending."


End file.
